High school skiers and snowboarders from all over California and Nevada have converged on the Mt. Shasta Ski Park this week for the California/Nevada Interscholastic Ski and Snowboard Federation Championships. Weed High School's Brian Quigley and Yreka's Brian Colla made strong showings in Monday's giant slalom race placing 14th and 17th place respectively.

Though snowpacks are thin all across California due to a record-breaking dry spell this winter, Mt. Shasta Ski Park has been careful and vigilant, making snow every chance they've had this winter and spreading it where it matters around the park.

Yreka senior Spencer Bruhns competed in Monday's race and said the conditions were good. "There's not a lot of snow but there's enough. It's a good day and the course is awesome," he commented.

Bruhn's teammate, Colla, agreed saying, "I'm glad to be here racing. I really hope we can keep the support for snowboard racing strong with events like this." Colla noted that the vast majority of snowboarding's popularity is currently focussed on freestyle, terrain park riding. He said while he enjoys that kind of riding as well, racing is also important to the future of the sport.

Zack Zeis from Redding's Shasta High School locked down one of the best times of the day for north state competitors with a combined time of 1:50:16 (two runs) earning him 11th place overall in boys giant slalom. Weed High School's Brian Quigley was close behind with a combined time of 1:51:19 for 14th place overall. Shasta's Andrew Anelli took 16th place with a combined time of 1:52:01 and Yreka's Colla took 17th place with a time of 1:52:08.

In the girls giant slalom division, Shasta High School's Mariah Henderson took 16th place overall with a time of 1:59:64. Weed High School's Giordan Stenmark took 25th place with a time of 2:05:18 followed closely by Shasta's Cortney Carter with a time of 2:08:09 finishing in 29th place.

The California/Nevada Championships will continue at the Mt. Shasta Ski Park through Thursday, March 7. Snowboard giant slalom races for both boys and girls divisions were held Monday. Tuesday's races will feature girls and boys dual slalom snowboard races. Wednesday will feature giant slalom ski racing with the shorter ski slalom races on Thursday. Races start at 9:30 a.m. each day.